Gadoid or Anacantliine Fishes. 



463 



and this correspondence extends to minute structural details, 

 the upper surface of the skull being precisely similar in 

 both, and unlike that of any other Gadoid, in having a 

 pair of divergent frontal ridges, starting from the supra- 

 occipital crest, and enclosing a large triangular depression. 

 Macruromis differs from the Macruridse and resembles 

 the Gadidffi in the intimate union of the first vertebra 

 to the skull, whilst its neural spine is directly and firmly 

 attached to the supra-occipital crest. Moreover, in botli 

 Macruronus and Merluccius the frontal bones are paired, 

 the pectoral pterygials are four in number, the vomer is 

 toothed, the scales are small and cycloid, concealed glandular 

 pseudobranchiai are present, and the dorsal fin has an elevated 

 anterior portion composed entirely of articulated rays and 

 subcontinuous with the rest of the fin. 



The vertebral column in Macruronus is quite normal, the 

 parapophyses being only moderately expanded, and bearing 

 ribs, whereas in Merluccius the anterior vertebrae only bear 

 ribs, the other prtecaudals having strong and much expanded 

 parapophyses, without ribs. 



Messrs. Jordan and Evermann* make Bregmaceros the 

 type of a distinct family, which they place near the Brotu- 

 lidse, on account of the supposed siuiilarity in the structure 

 of the pectoral arch. I find that this genus is typically 

 Gadid, the foramen being between scapula and coracoid, the 

 pelvic bones free from the pectoral arch, and the caudal fin 

 symmetrical. 



1- ig. 2. 



Diagrams showing- the relations of scapula, coracoid, and pterygials in 

 (A) Ganomus lomjijilis and (B) Mvrcenolepis marmoratus. 



The genus Murcenolejns, represented by a single species, 

 * Fishes N. Am. iii. p. 252G. 



